The problem is that if someone used the damned dictionary to create abbreviations, e.g. SWAK, the recipient would spend as much time with the dictionaries trying to work out what the abbreviations actually mean.

At which point the whole thing becomes slightly pointless, wouldn't you say?



Yeahbutuhhh®, you're confusin' me a bit, here, Cap. Don't dictionaries simply chronicle already-extant words and abbreviations so when you encounter an unfamiliar one you can look it up? Why, and how, would you use a dictionary to create a Message Board abbreviation? IJW (I'm just wonderin'...).